The annual garden party fundraiser for SASSAS (Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound) had most things one would expect in a swanky fundraiser. The event took place in the private residence of Mary Blodgett and Carlton Calvin in the painfully...
Vision Valley, An Effortless Cool Factor
I was going to make fun of The Pit’s group show “Vision Valley” at the Brand Library for being a "biennial," since everything is a biennial these days, until I actually read the press release (whoops) and realized that they were making fun of this exact thing...
OP-ED: In the Age of #MeToo
The wave of women coming forward with accounts of sexual harassment and assault has swept the art world like the Santa Ana winds in a California brush fire, and all I have to say is “Finally.” Historically, women have served as objects of sexual desire within the...
Diane Rosenstein Gallery: : Jesse Edwards, Matthew Sweesy
Matthew Sweesy’s “Nocturnes” and Jesse Edwards’ “Hot Town,” currently at Diane Rosenstein Gallery, are exercises in nostalgia. The two artists, while working in different mediums and styles, have a strikingly optimistic quality. Whether it’s the pop culture references...
The Educated Outsider: John Tottenham
“We’ll play to 700?” John Tottenham asks, but really it’s more of a demand than a question. It’s my second week of trying to combine an interview with him on his drawings of the Manson girls (as he insists, “You don’t have to focus on that series”) and our weekly game...
Wendell Gladstone
“Fever Pitch,” Wendell Gladstone’s new collection of paintings, achieves that elusive characteristic in which the longer you look, the more you see. It may be the bright, cotton candy-colored palette that draws you in, but it’s the details that keep you looking. At...
Zevitas Marcus: : Josh Jefferson
Is a collage comprised of assembled painted canvases a collage, a painting, or assemblage art? Does the semantics even matter? “Jabberwocky,” Josh Jefferson’s exhibition at Zevitas Marcus, plays with these boundaries. Jefferson created the collages (the gallery has...
Culture Coverup: L.A. Chicana/o Murals under Siege
Just as there is a certain metaphysical link between acknowledging one’s existence and looking in the mirror, there exists a similar link between the acknowledgement of a culture’s experienced reality and its representation in media. When a cultural group lacks...
CAAM: : Black Radical Women
Rallying against overwhelmingly white, male perspectives in art history, “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85” at the California African American Museum (CAAM) is not to be missed. The exhibition highlights the stylistically varied work of over 30...
Lousy Lighting and Not Well-Hung
Clearly I am both not from LA and do not run in VIP circles because I had never heard of the Soho House prior to my invite to see photographer Kourtney Roy’s new collection of works on display there. I mistakenly assumed it was just a cheeky name for a gallery, so was...
Radical Women at the Hammer
It’s often said that the victor writes the history, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that men, and society in general, have been victorious in writing an exclusionary narrative after ignoring women for centuries. Art history books, museums and other established...
Karen Finley at REDCAT
Karen Finley’s The Expanded Unicorn Gratitude Mystery unfolds similarly to a dream that makes complete logical sense when experiencing it, but is difficult to piece together the linear structure upon waking. The one-woman show lasts for an hour and a half (no...
Big Art & Big Bras
Any night of openings is success if it begins with free shrimp tacos, and boy did Parrasch Heijnen deliver. The relatively new gallery, tucked away in Boyle Heights near the now-defunct Sears building, surely knows how to win over new fans. Outside the gallery, one of...
Rad Art Opening
It’s a little inside scoop that people who frequent art openings often call the Hammer openings “Hammer-ed” openings, and it’s no surprise. Armed with the (possibly) coveted “Director’s” pass, aka VIP, I was able to peruse the party without the distraction of the hoi...
Off the Beaten Path in Barcelona
I landed in Barcelona a little sweaty, slightly hung over, and very much lost. Much to my surprise, the discount tickets I purchased for $350 round-trip included three meals, unlimited snacks, and all-you-can-drink beverages (including alcohol). By the end of the...
Coagula Curatorial: Manuel Ocampo & Irene Iré
Manuel Ocampo and Irene Iré accomplish the often-difficult task of formulating a joint show that appears cohesive without sacrificing the styles of either artist. Their different styles of abstract and figurative, colorful and subdued seem to be engaged in a...
These Days: Afraid of Modern Living
The unassuming These Days gallery, which lies on the second floor off an alleyway in downtown LA, currently houses an impressive installation titled, “Afraid of Modern Living: World Imitation & Monitor 1977–1982.” The show features a display of zines, paintings,...
Mike Diana’s “Boiled Angel”
If there’s one thing people know about Superchief it’s that they know how to throw a party. The opening on Saturday for "Boiled Angel" is exactly what you would expect (free beer, DJ) and what you wouldn’t (piñatas of Pikachu and Donald Trump filled with money and...